Edward Snowden's Security Shaming Encouraged us to Batten Down the Data Hatches

The furore surrounding surveillance, privacy and who knows what about us that was kicked off by Edward Snowden's security leaks has had some positive effect on the globe, with 39 per cent of people polled saying they have "taken steps" to protect their online security in the wake of the surveillance revelations.

The data, collected by The Centre for International Governance Innovation that collated opinions from a survey of 23,376 people, found that 43 per cent of people have started avoiding certain sites in order to better protect their online presences, with 39 per cent of respondents saying they're more on top of regularly changing passwords as a result of internet security suddenly becoming hot news.

Of course, changing passwords won't help much when the government's got a special wire coming out of the back of Google's data centre, but it does at least show that the publicity around the surveillance scandal can encourage people to treat the internet like the dangerous monster it can be when angered. [The Register]